1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to floppy disk drives, and more specifically, to a dam attached to a floppy disk, which, when inserted in to a computer disk drive blocks air and dust from entering the drive.
2. Related Art
FIG. 1 is a simplified block diagram showing air movement through a cabinet 102 housing components of a computer. The cabinet includes: components 104A-C, intake vents 106A-D, a 3.25" disk drive 108, a 5.25" floppy-drive 110, and an exhaust fan 116. Components 104A-C are typically those found in Personal Computers such as processor chips, boards and memory (e.g.,SIMMs).
Components 104A-C generate heat when operational. An exhaust fan 116 is used to cool components 104. The exhaust fan 116 produces constant negative pressure in the cabinet 102 causing primary air (shown as arrows within dashed lines 114) to enter vents 106 A-D. Before exiting the cabinet 102, via an opening of the exhaust fan 116, the primary air 114 flows across the components 104A-C, thereby dispersing heat and cooling components 104.
Several problems, associated with cooling components 104, arise due to the design of current floppy-disk drives 110. Most conventional floppy drives (e.g., 5.25") are open both front and back. Thus, the fan 116 can draw air (shown as arrows within dashed lines 112) through the floppy drive 110 allowing dust to accumulate on a drive read/write head (shown in FIG. 3 as 302). Dust can cause the drive read/write head to malfunction. Additionally, when a conventional floppy disk (not shown) is inserted into the dusty drive 110, the dust can deposit on the floppy disk leading to data errors.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,122,918 to Chao (the Chao patent) attempts to address the dust problem by employing a porous air filtrating element attached to floppy disk to filter dust out of the air which enters the disk drive 110. The Chao patent may help to prevent dust from entering the disk drive 110, but it does not address another significant problem: short circuiting of air flow.
From a computer system view, as shown in FIG. 1, having a disk drive 110, open front and back, directly across from the exhaust fan 116, short circuits air flow (shown as dotted lines and labelled 112) through the computer cabinet 102. In present personal computer manufacturing practice, this is typically the case. This, in turn, creates inadequate air flow across hot components 104, which leads to higher component temperatures within cabinet 102 thus inducing earlier failure of these components 104.
Today, as more memory SIMMs and faster processor chips are added to personal computers, the power consumed and thus converted to heat continues to increase. Therefore, what is needed is an apparatus that prevents foreign objects, such as dust, from entering the floppy drive 110, while preventing air from being short circuited in the cabinet 102.